East Nashville News: Turnip Truck, Top O' Woodland, Basement East and more

Remember how just a few years ago we’d see a fawning national press story about East Nashville and be all, “Wheeeeeeeeee!”? Hands up: Who saw this week’s "East Nashville is the hippest part of town” AP story, which ran in the Washington Post and a host of other publications, and didn’t echo our friend Amanda Reece, here: ”Stop telling people how awesome it is here! We're full!!”? (Oh, we kid. Ish.)

Elsewhere, we have a returning food fest and movie nights and new twists at an old manse and lots more. On to this week’s East Nashville news:

Yum!east Festival returns

Attendees at the first two Yum!East festivals will tell you: The annual grazing celebration of East Nashville food is a good, good time, offering tastes of a glut of neighborhood restaurants and eateries and an evening of quality entertainment.

So it’s with no small amount of look-forwarditude that we mention that the 3rd annual festival is set for Thursday, June 4 from 6 to 9 p.m., once again at the Pavilion East. They’ll have 30 participating restaurants, beverages and music, and your ticket — $45 per, info coming soon on Yumeast.com — will go to help Fannie Battle Day Home for Children.

New owners to take over Top O'Woodland

The circa-1898 Victorian known these days as the Top O'Woodland Historic Inn and Wedding Chapel will be moving on to its fifth-ever owner, as the folk behind Brooklyn’s Urban Cowboy B&B take over and, from the sound of it, make some exciting renovations and changes.

“They plan 8 guests rooms with private baths, a restaurant in the old Dairy Queen building [behind the main house] and lots of interaction with the East Nashville scene,” a note from Top O'Woodland says.

Urban Cowboy head Lyon Porter says the expansion to Nashville was inspired by “an imbibed conversation” with Travel + Leisure editor Nate Storey last summer, then cemented after a visit with East Sider Ruthie Lindsey in the fall (we talked about her place in our Airbnb story a little while back).

The Brooklyn spot’s a “Modern Luxury Brooklyn Townhouse, with an Industrial Williamsburg/Adirondack/Cowboy Sensibility” — it’ll be interesting to see how the new owners put their stamp on this historic East Side home.

As in past seasons, the movie’s held on the knoll next to Bongo East (109 S. 11th St.) at sundown, and admission is $5 or $4 with a canned food donation for Second Harvest Food Bank.

More movie nights will follow on the third Sunday of every month through October. To keep up with each month’s film, join GKMN on Facebook.

Applause for East Side 'The Voice'-er Sarah Potenza

Spoiler alert: If you’re not caught up on The Voice, avert your eyes.

Aaaaand, K: A round of applause for our neighbor, Sarah Potenza, who made a strong showing up through this week on the hit singing show, just missing the Top 12 (who’ll duke it out next week). Potenza was eliminated on Wednesday’s episode. Check her out above, singing “Free Bird,” totally not because a drunk bro requested it “hilariously.”

New garden grows at Riverwood Mansion

Fans of the culinary offerings at Inglewood’s Riverwood Mansion have more reason to get excited now, as mansion manager/8 Lavender Lane owner and head chef Debbie Sutton has partnered with chef Trey Cioccia of The Farm House to create a garden on the Riverwood grounds, its fruits aimed at bringing “the freshest ingredients” to diners at both places.

“Fresh produce will be grown, harvested and then served at Cioccia's restaurant and incorporated into Sutton's catering menu,” a release from Riverwood says. “We're excited to be participating in this important initiative and to use our land in a way that supports local businesses bringing the community fresher food.”

Lockeland Table on ‘Talk of the Town’

Here’s a farm-fresh-deliciousness gift from Lockeland Table and NewsChannel 5’s Talk of the Town:

Earlier this week, Lockeland’s executive chef and owner Hal Holden-Bache stopped by the show to share the ins and outs of his White Squirrel Farms Arugula & Kale Salad. Wanna make it? Check out the recipe on the show’s website, and get some direction from the talented Holden-Bache in the video above.

Wanna get in on Rock 'n' Roll Cornhole?

Some of us like our sporting to be of the baseball/football ilk; some of us tend toward more “alternative sports.” Those in the latter camp might wanna swing by East Nashville Sports’ website to sign up for the spring Rock 'n' Roll Cornhole league — registration closes Friday at a minute to midnight.

The general details: season kicks off April 16 and ends May 21; you’ll gather Thursdays 7 to 10 p.m. at The Crying Wolf (823 Woodland); one-time cost is $30 per player; season-ending tournament prizes include stuff from Sky Blue, Five Points Pizza, Fond Object, I Dream of Weenie, Pied Piper Creamery, Cizar's Mediterranean Grill and The Crying Wolf.